May 30, 2014

This weekend wraps up the end of spring sports and we're going out with a bang.

Bud has his final lacrosse tournament set for tomorrow. Games are throughout the day and depending on how they do, they may play on Sunday in a championship round.

Boo will play in the last soccer game on Sunday. They are hoping to remain undefeated! After the game, we will head over to a teammate's house for an end of the season BBQ and swim party.

The weather is supposed to beautiful all weekend long so yay for that!

I'm trying out a new recipe for an appetizer dip to take to the BBQ. I'm a little nervous since I've never made it before but it has great reviews and I can follow a recipe ... I will share the recipe next week, regardless.

Even though I have to get up at the butt crack of dawn tomorrow morning, I'm really looking forward to the weekend!

May 29, 2014

After a week of dealing with a sad boy, (during which I may or may not have bought him an expensive pair of sneakers he wanted to cheer him up), we have a resolution to the soccer team drama: He is staying on the team.

After a few (civil) email exchanges with the coach, he told me I had to contact the head of boys travel soccer to request Boo not be moved down a level and to place him on the other U11 team for the fall season. So I did.

My
son was on the XXX soccer team for the past
year but I was recently informed he would not be on the team for the
upcoming fall season. I know how this works, and I know certain kids end
up on certain teams on purpose - and that's fine. It's how youth
sports operate in 2014. But trying to explain that to a 9 year old
who now thinks he isn't good enough to play on any soccer team is
downright hard.

Obviously my son is very upset by this decision and putting him down a level to
U10 is making matters worse. Try to put yourself in his shoes. He'll be
in 5th grade in September but he's being asked to not play with his
classmates. He doesn't understand or care about the flight status of
the team. He just sees it as he isn't good enough to play with other 5th
graders. It's that simple.

I'm
upset because of how this was handled and how the confidence he gained
has been stripped away. Their team is undefeated, after all. That's huge
to a 9 year old. Yet as of right now, he doesn't even want to play in
the last game scheduled for 6/1.

I'm
respectfully asking that he be placed on the other U11 team for
the fall season. If not, he doesn't want to play. He is very adamant
about it and I won't force him to play.

Please let me know what is decided.

After the long holiday weekend, another email from his coach showed up:

Please ask (Boo) if he would like to stay and play on our Team for the 2014 Fall Season. I had told J that we wouldn’t mind carrying another player and Boo was next on the Rating List.

Please let us know as soon as possible so J can get the Teams squared away.

When I read that, I was honestly floored. It's not the outcome I expected at all but I do think it's the right one. Boo has accepted the offer to stay on the team.

May 27, 2014

I read 3 books last week. Crazy, right? Crazy for me, at least. This happens to me every year around this time when there isn't anything on TV to watch.

My sister and I share a Kindle account and we had the 1st book of this trilogy sitting around for quite some time. I had just finished The Fault in Our Stars and was looking for something new to read. A quick google search let me know books 2 and 3 were also available and I downloaded them immediately.

And then I couldn't put the Kindle down. The love story begins in 1991 during Layla and Trip's senior year of high school. I graduated that year so I could relate to so much of the story, the style, life back then, set in NJ - all of it! I laughed and I cried. I devoured the story, even read it while walking down the street to and from my train station.

Yep, totally obsessed. I finished the 3rd book on Friday night at about 7:30pm and had to fight the urge to start all over again. It's a great read, a perfect love story, and a perfect summer read, regardless of your age.

May 22, 2014

A few years ago when I had to make a decision whether to send Boo
to 1st grade or hold him back, I never dreamed it would come back to
bite me in the ass over a soccer team. Boo's current U11 coach
didn't pick him up again for the Fall season and suggested he fall back
to a U10 team instead of playing with the other U11 team because the
other U11 team isn't "flighted" as high. This probably doesn't make
sense but in essence, he wants Boo on the higher flighted team
track but back a level.

Try telling that to a 9 year old who loves his
current team and is completely crushed. He just wants to play with with
his friends and classmates and doesn't understand the whole flighted
nonsense. This isn't club soccer after all, it's town travel soccer.

Aside from all of that, I'm pissed this was done through email. Be a
man, a COACH, and have a talk with the poor kid. I think it would have
made a world of difference. I'm on the edge of despising all youth
sports. I never played town sports anything until sports were offered through
middle school and high school. My parents did it right. They saved
themselves so much aggravation.

May 20, 2014

As June approaches, it has dawned on me how fast life changes. First there were tons of engagement parties and bridal showers. Then weddings, one after another, followed by baby showers and first birthday parties. Now I'm receiving high school graduation announcements in the mail!

What the heck happened?

Time, please, I'm begging you ... please slow down.

I remember the days when the boys were little and during a stressful day you'd give anything for it to be time for bed. We still have occasional days like that now that hormones have moved in. Stupid hormones!

I hope I'm doing this parenting thing right because now is when it really starts to get difficult and when it starts to count.

May 13, 2014

Saturday night at 10:30 Boo was vomiting. Awesome. This came out of nowhere, as he was perfectly fine 30 minutes before. He got sick again around 2:30am - Happy Mother's Day to me! When he finally woke up late Sunday morning, he was running a fever. The good news in all of this is that instead of rushing around that morning trying to get out to a soccer game, we spent the morning on the couch sipping our favorite drink - me some hot tea, him some Gatorade - and we watched a mini-marathon of Naked & Afraid.

When he perked up a bit, he went over to his book bag and pulled out a piece of purple construction paper that had been folded in half like a book and colored on the outside. "Happy Mother's Day", he said.

Inside the "book" was a 2.5 page essay about Me as a Mom. It was sweet and funny and I was impressed that he took notice of some things we wrote about. But the absolute best part was the closing:

I guess 6th graders are "too old" to make something for their moms for Mother's Day. Tween's are very cranky people. I foresee an increase in my alcohol consumption in the coming months.

Boo perked up later that afternoon so we still went over to my SIL's for a BBQ dinner. It was nice to not cook or host. I did bake a cake - more on that tomorrow!

May 9, 2014

I have a horrible time with shoes. They are always cutting up the backs of my ankles. It's like my heel is shorter than it should be? I'm not sure how else to explain it. It's a really annoying problem to have, especially when you find all these cute shoes you could buy but don't because you know your feet won't like them.

I've tried a few different products but nothing stayed put or worked right. My heels were still rubbed raw.

Enter Dr. Scholl's heel liners. These things are HEAVEN and my new best friend!

May 6, 2014

Since life begins and ends with sports right now, I need to just embrace it and stop worrying about posting about it too much. Because really, no one cares! I love my boys and I love to watch them play.

Saturday morning we left the house at 6:30 am for Bud's lacrosse tournament. The drive wasn't bad (no traffic!) but man, it was early. I don't even leave the house that early for work!

The boys played well but didn't win any games. We were outmatched by a bunch of big bad club teams. I think if we could have played down a level we would have been more evenly matched with the teams. The 3rd game was their best but we couldn't hang on to the lead in the end. But hey, the weather was fantastic and no one got hurt.

Boo's soccer team got another win on Sunday so they are still undefeated. It's crazy!!

I did manage to sneak out with my sister to the movies on Sunday night. We saw "The Other Woman." It was decent but the plot was predictable. A few funny scenes but nothing worthy of falling-out-your-seat-funny.

I managed to get the garden going too. Everything is planted. Let's hope the threat of frost is over. I will follow-up on this with more details soon.

I also managed to switch over my closet. It's time to put away the fuzzy warm sweaters. Boooo... just in time too because I forgot how many pairs of summer shoes I had! I definitely do not need to go shoe shopping AT ALL.